By Stephen McKinley
Towering on East 52nd Street in Manhattan is an elegant new skyscraper: the Austrian Cultural Forum.
It as a daring new building: historically, Austrian links to the U.S. do not spring readily to mind, compared with more dominant immigrant groups such as Italians or indeed the Irish.
At 24 stories tall and costing $29 million from the Austrian government, the Austrian Cultural Forum has been planned since 1992, said director Christoph Thorn-Hohenstein.
One journalist who attended the Forum’s opening described it as “a monumental showcase for the tiny country that lays claim to the legacy of Mozart, Mahler and Freud.” Probably no other foreign government has ever put so much effort into the creation of a cultural center in New York.
“There are several gallery spaces, and a theater for 200 people that can also be used as gallery space because the building is designed to be very flexible,” Thorn-Hohenstein told the Irish Echo.
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“There is a two-floor library, meeting spaces, office spaces and residential space.” Thorn-Hohenstein said that Austrian links to the U.S. were more “than you can imagine,” mentioning recently deceased Holywood director Billy Wilder as an example.
Around New York, which Thorn-Hohenstein emphatically called “still the cultural center of the world,” other ethnic groups and countries have prominent premises to vaunt their culture in the public eye.
Among the vast resources at the new Austrian forum is information on living and studying in Austria, Austrian universities and research institutions, grants and scholarships, university exchange and study-abroad programs, Austrian centers in the U.S., learning German in Austria, and summer schools in Austria.
On Park Avenue, a sleek, clean-lined facade is the public face of Scandinavia House, where the five Nordic countries, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland have set up cultural shop.
Communications coordinator Joan Jastrebski said that the building, opened in 2000, has eight floors, a theater that seats 160 people, a children’s learning center, a library, shop and cafe.
“The Scandinavian governments donated money for the building at the start,” Jastrebski said. “Now it is run entirely by the American Scandinavian Foundation. Currently we have an exhibition of early maps of Scandinavia and a five-month film festival.”
Smaller but no less beautiful premises just north of Washington Square house the Maison Frantaise, the French Cultural presence at New York University.
The Maison Frantaise shares the same block as Glucksman Ireland House — both small cultural spaces that are organized from within the NYU system, their focus being primarily educational and academic research-oriented.
Director of the Maison Frantaise Francine Goldenhar said that the building has one large exhibition and lecture space that holds about 100 people and some office space.
“We get some money from the French government for specific projects,” Goldenhar said.
Other cultural institutes have prominent and central locations in the city, such as Germany’s Goethe Institute at 1041 Fifth Avenue, and Italy Houses — “Casa Italiana” — at Columbia University and NYU.